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Eucharist > A Velvet Creation > Reviews
Eucharist - A Velvet Creation

Wallowing in existential agony. - 84%

hells_unicorn, November 21st, 2021
Written based on this version: 1993, CD, Wrong Again Records

Often an album is relegated to obscure status due to scene saturation producing a high number of similar competitors, but occasionally there are other factors at play that can prevent an otherwise impressive early entry into a soon to be popular niche. Sweden's Eucharist presents arguably the most blatant case of faults in the band itself other than their musical prowess hampering their efforts, as they all but wrote the book on lineup instability and inconsistent activity in the early 90s, splitting up multiple times before their debut LP would come into being. When combined with a fairly sparse overall studio output during the entire 1990s when their adoptive melodic death metal style went from a curiosity to a highly marketable alternative to the older Stockholm death metal sound, it was all but inevitable that this trailblazing, Halland-born quartet would be to the eventual Gothenburg scene what Nihilist would be to the aforementioned earlier one. Nevertheless, the advent of hindsight has seen this former obscure Swedish melodeath curiosity turn into something a bit more visible, almost akin to that dark horse status of contemporary acts like Gates Of Ishtar and Ceremonial Oath.

It goes without saying that any offering that came to light in this burgeoning death metal subset between 1992 and 1994 would be of a very different quality than the more stylized entries that graced the mid-1990s in Slaughter Of The Soul, The Jester Race, and The Gallery, sharing a closer proximity with the older aesthetic that came out of Florida in the late 80s and Stockholm at the turn of the decade. As such, 1993's A Velvet Creation could almost be considered a typical affair, save for the fact that much of its contents were written back in 1991 and likely were composed independent of At The Gates' concurrent demo work. Nevertheless, the overall feel of coldness and sorrowful character of this album leans back a little closer to the earlier mold of Entombed and Dismember's formative debut albums, often falling back on the exact same thrash rhythms, blast segments and machine gun double kick work that was a staple of the old school sound. Ultimately the nature of these songs carries the stylistic trappings that were typical to the late 80s/early 90s approach, but the atmosphere and emotive qualities beneath its orthodox pretense shares a good bit with The Red In The Sky Is Ours and Unanimated's In The Forest Of The Dreaming Dead.

Though the nature of this album is that of a fence-straddling, missing link style that will tend to vacillate between an old school death/thrashing assault and a nuanced, melodic excursion into frosty melancholy, it is executed in a decidedly simplistic and stripped down fashion. Sectional contrast and a gradual development of straightforward melody segments play a more pivotal role in how these songs emerge than the technical flash and impact-based riffing attack of a typical American or even Stockholm-based death metal act of the day, though this by no means relegates Eucharist to the status of slouches at their instruments. Though guitar solos occur a bit more infrequently here than usual for a 1993 effort, the compact thrashing beast and closer "Once My Eye Moved Mountains" and the 7-minute epic slough "Floating" contain solid and tasteful shred breaks, and one would be remiss not to notice the flowing classical acoustic intro to "Greeting Immortality" and the well-placed bass and drum intro that kicks off "My Bleeding Tears". But at the end of the day, this is an album that lives and dies by riffs, and the ones that cycle in and out of every song on here walks a tight-rope between the bleakness of the early Stockholm sound and the more tuneful despair of the upcoming melodic alternative, to the point that Markus Johnsson's agonized wails seem like an occasional fellow traveler that chimes in just to convey in words what is already being uttered by the guitars, bass and drums.

This is basically one of those albums that carries massive appeal from a historical perspective and also manages to hold up reasonably well nearly 30 years later. From a songwriting and execution angle, there aren't any dull moments to speak of, as each idea is carefully measured and transitioned out in a highly effective manner. Even the auspiciously long "Floating" doesn't even hint at suggesting to the listener that there is any fat on the edges in need of being trimmed out. Pretty much the only glaring flaw that keeps this from being an outright classic after the mold of The Red In The Sky Is Ours and The Nocturnal Silence is the paper thin production, which sees the drums sounding particularly lacking in punch, while the guitars' somewhat muddier tone clashes a bit with the intended coldness and sorrowful overtures of the riffs. This was basically producer Redrik Larnemo's first crack at engineering and mixing an album so the usual amateur shortcomings in the final product are pretty noticeable and would be remedied on subsequent works with Armageddon, Decameron and this outfit's 1997 follow up Mirrorworlds. It's a worthwhile listen for those who enjoy death metal prior to the modern variant that became ascendant in the later 90s, but like a number of more obscure outings, it's a little rough around the edges.

Splendid vinyl reissue - 80%

dismember_marcin, February 22nd, 2019

Eucharist has never actually belonged to my favourite death metal bands from Sweden and I admit that I've been listening to their two CDs very, very rarely. They never represented my most favourite sound of Swedish death metal. But I'm quite glad that I recently had a chance to refresh "A Velvet Creation", which is Eucharist's 1993 debut album. It's been years since I have listened to it last time, but it actually stood the test of time pretty well and I sincerely enjoyed this album after all these years. No idea why I liked it now more than before.

But the reason why I even had a chance to refresh "A Velvet Creation" to myself is the newest vinyl edition of this album, which recently has been unleashed by Wolfsbane Records from The Netherlands. I have to say they did splendid job. OK, there's new front artwork, which is something what some of you may not like. I too often don't like when they change covers of old albums on their newest reissues. But in this case, I like this new artwork, so I have no problem with it. The vinyl quality is awesome. Heavy record, solid cover, great layout, with few huge old band photos, a 4-page booklet with the lyrics... It all looks great and absolutely proper for such reissue. It is definitely more interesting to your eye than the previous LP version from Regain, which was rather poor (but it had the original artwork and band photo haha).

Musically, I was kind of sceptical if "A Velvet Creation" had survived the test of time, if it sounds a bit outdated... But it doesn't! I actually enjoy it now more than few years ago (maybe I should blame the vinyl charm for it... nothing better to spin a black wax, right?!). Stylistically we have here melodic death metal from Sweden; one, which you can easily put right next to "Lunar Strain", "The Red in the Sky Is Ours", "Skydancer" and other early melodic albums from Sverige. I think we can all agree that it's been quite characteristic style of death metal, but it's awesome that each of these bands sounded a bit different - despite similarities they shared. It's no other with Eucharist. For instance, one of the things, which I think extinguish Eucharist is the fact that their music was a bit harsher, more aggressive, with quite few fast parts through the whole record. And their type of melodies was not so catchy and enchanting as In Flames' for instance. They sounded darker, more sinister - which is something I obviously like a lot. Maybe sometimes it sounds a bit sloppy, but damn, "A Velvet Creation" does have its great moments. Especially in songs like “March of Insurrection”, when they combine that dark harmony with solid, aggressive and fast to mid paced death metal, perfectly corresponding with the vicious, screaming type of vocals from Markus Johnsson. And there are many more great parts on the album. It's not necessarily easily memorable, but vicious and harsh, yet melodic stuff.

One thing, which works against "A Velvet Creation" the most is probably the production of the album, which really could have been better. There's no real heaviness and power to it, guitars sound a bit thin, more bass would be nice to hear as well. When compared to the tight production of "Lunar Strain" you can really hear the difference. But let’s be honest – this album was recorded by kids! You shouldn’t expect so much from them. How old were they, when “A Velvet Creation” was recorded?! Seventeen, I think?! But if you listen to the quality of instrumentation, songwriting, the ideas they had for the song structures, arrangements and everything else – wow, that’s something absolutely fantastic for such age. so, let’s just take “A Velvet Creation” for what it is – pretty solid and fine early example for Swedish melodic death metal. Check then this newest vinyl edition, I think it is absolutely worth it. Recommended.

Standout tracks: “March of Insurrection”, “Floating”
Verdict: 80/100

touch the wastes of infinity - 93%

TowardsMorthond, February 16th, 2012

Eucharist's first album demonstrates a full spectrum of musical possibilities, in all aspects concerned, of the melodically-enhanced union of black and death metal styles, otherwise known as the 'Gothenburg' style of metal, a type of metal that began with such promise before quickly devolving into essentially revved-up power metal with death growls. The music functions and flows in a similar vein as early At the Gates and Dissection, with streaming melodies of the fast-picked tremolo variety guiding songs through a series of thematically defined movements in progressive structures, threading a flowing motion of delicate beauty through a multi-tiered structural carving of raw and dark emotion in a continuous process of existential self-discovery and observational perception of external conflicts, executed with deadly instrumental precision.

"Foremost in our march of insurrection
I am the creation and destruction
A purpose of all scarifies
I am all what was meant to be"

A Velvet Creation introduces itself with the dancing notes of a quickly plucked classical guitar, then menacingly cuts these pleasant tones with a single snare drum shot, immediately after which an electric guitar chord is struck with an unforgiving tone of ominous darkness, slamming its way through the sound before taking shape in a phrase of fast alternating of ascending/descending notes, as a series of abrupt and intense tempo changes occurs following the completion of the opening phrase. They call it "Greeting Immortality", and like the rest of the songs on this album, it relishes its method of presenting an introductory theme that defines its overriding concept by orchestrating a diverse representation of that concept through numerous changes in accord with the explored perspective, reconciling its conflicts through either a thematically revealing return to the original introductory theme or a transitional re-routing of a song's course towards a newly developed transformation of the definitive idea.

Most impressive from the technical aspect is the fluidity and precision of the execution, which gives this music a graceful quality of pure instrumental accuracy and detailed delivery, seamlessly moving through its often charging and dramatic progressions with nimbleness and finesse, aided in sound by the sharp clarity of instrumental definition provided by the coldly reverberating studio production. This instrumental exactitude gives a clear and sharply defined presentation in performance of these involved structural designs, highlighted by the rhythmic fluency of highly active but rhythmically contained percussion, featuring playful double bass acrobatics and expert precision of beat definition which is careful not to obstruct harmonic flow, and excellent conception and delivery of lead guitar melodies and solos which course through the music as a guiding source of articulation, the perceptive crest of this dark illumination in musical form.

"Once my eye moved mountains
My sword could pierce like lightning
and on the back of my horse I traveled

Through eternal voids
within the timeless sphere"

Steeped in enigmatic symbolism, the well-crafted and insightful lyrics explore an abstract range of perspectives on metaphysical themes, culled from the realm of both introspective and peripheral experience, given voice through a rage of expressive tone, a raw vocal scream of frustration, torment, and determination, delivered with the weight of emotional conviction, discernibly articulated, and arranged in accordance with rhythmic flow, though flexibly expressed within that construction, with sudden, alarming increases in tone and urgency when emphasizing the significance of an exclamation.

While compositional coherence varies between songs, when Eucharist nail it, as in the aforementioned "Greeting Immortality", the visionary nightsky invasion of "Into the Cosmic Sphere", or the 2 1/2 minute blast of sublime excited terror of perceptive realization that is "Once My Eye Moved Mountains", they portray a mastery of the melodic blackened death metal craft rivaling the best of the style. The music is charged with the energy flowing from the joy and motivation of meaningful creativity, and in that moment of artistic conjuration, actualizing a journey of universal discovery through its deep-reaching inward investigation.

Overflowed with carnal suffering - 73%

autothrall, December 6th, 2009

Melodic death metal is pretty much a household fact of life for the metal head of the 21st century, but 16 years ago, very few bands were promoting it. Eucharist was one of the formative artists to adopt and help mold the path it continues to blaze today, after a few turbulent years that involved an early breakup (the band was formed in '89, but this album did not see release until 1993). Upon your first listen experience with A Velvet Creation, you'll notice that the band did not sound much like their peers, with a melancholic spin on the style that was a little closer to the death metal aesthetic. The album is distanced from the brutal variety, but the melodies were a little more subtle than the classic power metal tint infused into the sounds of Dark Tranquillity (whose debut Skydancer also debuted this year) and In Flames (whose debut Lunar Strain would arrive in 1994). The riffing was more carnal here, despite the gothic elegance of the lyrics and songwriting.

There are some advocates who would tell you that A Velvet Creation, and Eucharist, were superior to either of those bands (even At the Gates), but here I must disagree. Though the album flows from front to back with a delicate balance of grace and terror, the individual songs don't stand out nearly as much as the forthcoming mid-90s classic Slaughter of the Soul, The Jester Race, or The Gallery. In retrospect, this debut is a decent curiosity, but nothing more, and it was soon buried in the piles of praise for its peers. Drummer Daniel Erlandsson would himself leave for In Flames and Arch Enemy, touring and a few substantial paychecks, and original bassist Tobias Gustafsson (who played on this album) would depart to Armageddon.

Alas, my intention is not to sound too down on this album, because it's certainly not bad. But, unlike wine, it has not grown any tastier with age, and my moderate appreciation in birth has not increased through the years of adolescence. Classical acoustic guitar pulls and plucks its way into Erlandsson's double bass and the righteous old school death rhythm of "Greeting Immortality" (from their earlier demo), while Markus Johnsson's vocals tear across the realms of black and death metal infinity and his bass thunders below. The song was pretty popular in its demo days, and a natural choice to open the record with some class and energy. "The Religion of the Blood-Red Velvet" moves at a mid pace, with grim yet festive churning and chugging guitars balanced with simple, complementary melodies. Like most of the material here, it's good, just not great by any means, nor is the following "March of Insurrection", despite its steady thrash chugging and raw, emotional bridge that leads into an average melodic death charge. "My Bleeding Tears", despite its rather emo title, starts with a drum battery over bass plodding and then a pretty powerful rhythm, though this doesn't stand still for long as the guitars erupt into a pair of bleeding tears steadily rolling down the blinded eyes of the cover figure. The bow sound at the 1:30 really adds to the gothic atmosphere of the track, and Johnsson's pulls out some nice bass lines that swagger below the guitars at around 2:10.

Behold my bleeding tears
That fall
Because you will never understand
How I feel

Like a lot of melodic death in these days (as well as early gothic metal), the lyrics read like so much empty poetry. But at least they match the album's atmosphere and the solemn guitars. "Floating" commences with some more acoustic lines, and then develops into some pretty cool guitar effects and leads that wind through the verse, probably one of the deeper and more interesting tracks on this album. The title track is my clear favorite, with some great tone to the dual, driving guitars as they thread their woeful notes through a saddened black heart. When Johnsson's vocals are matched to this rhythm a little later on, the album becomes sheer bliss, if only for a moment. "Into the Cosmic Sphere" has a good charge to it, with even more of the subtle, dual melodies that were the signature for their sound. Another great riff here, at 1:30, gloomy and gorgeous, and beneath the vocals, it bears a lot in common with early melodic doom ala Paradise Lost. "Once My Eye Moved Mountains" is a killer song title and one of the album's better pieces to boot. Though the verse strives over a pretty average melodeath riff (which we'd be hearing, many thousands of times over the next decade or so), the lead is fairly infectious and the whole song quite energetic.

There are no hidden surprises here. The album might sound a little thin to the modern ear, but this is really how its melodies manage to shine through. I rather prefer the honesty of the atmosphere to many of today's severely overdubbed, digitized, sterile recordings. As for the writing: half of the songs are good, the other half average, the lyrics a mixed bag, and nothing here that I'd go out of my way to hear. But if you've got a nostalgia for the roots of this style, you'll find it was a pretty obvious influence on many bands to follow, and it's palatable enough alongside a glass of bitter sweet wine, Skydancer, and the first two At the Gates records.

Highlights: Floating, A Velvet Creation, Into the Cosmic Sphere

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Tremolo Picked Goodness... - 85%

AnInsidiousMind, January 17th, 2008

Eucharist is a Swedish death metal band that knows exactly how to use melody from heavy metal and weave it into death metal. This so many times in melodic death metal bands run into tedious songwriting and riffs that are uninspired; a perfect example of this is post Alf At the Gates. When thinking about the Swedes and their melodies the listener expects sweeping melodies, and in this album that’s exactly what the listener is presented with. Each song has a melody that Eucharist keeps through many riffs, like many previous thrash bands (Slayer for example).

So what distinguishes Eucharist from its peers is this hard to do genre? Well it’s the fucking riffs and putting them together in a way that isn’t tedious. Eucharist has load and loads of riffs in this album, yet they also keep a emotion in them. Not ever do they linger on a catchy riff just for the catchiness of it; every riff flows into the next for a hypnotic headbanging greatness. Eucharist also uses a lot of harmonies throughout the album, and they are weaved in and out of the tremolo picked riffs. These subtleties shine through with multiple listens, because they aren’t banking on in your face hooks; although, the tremolo picked riffs kick your face in at the start, the songwriting lulls you into the song by making those tremolo picked riffs hypnotic. What makes the riffs so hypnotic is the drumming because it’s simplistic and rarely deviates from the standard old school death metal beat or blast beat. They use the drumming counter to what the riffs are doing, an example of this is the blast beats over slow riffs and the slow beat over a fast tremolo picked riff.

Although this album is fucking solid, hypnotic, and riffy all the way through it lacks in substance and atmosphere to put it as one of the greats in the genre. The lyrics are standard old school death metal, and the atmosphere is of the standard evilness in old school death metal; however, the riffs and brilliant songwriting make it a phenomenal release. Highly recommended for those people into old school death metal.

Tremendous melodic death - 80%

Sacraphobic, August 26th, 2004

Often dismissed as a mundane Gothenburg band, Eucharist are highly underrated on the underground circuit. This, their first of two releases, is one of the gems of Swedish metal, up in the ranks of classics like "The Nocturnal Silence". Indeed, I'd guess that this album is developing the path set by Necrophobic, but as it came out in the same year as TNS, I'm not sure which came first.

With "A Velvet Creation", Eucharist create unusually eerie and ominous death metal with a great sense of melody and rhythm. The album possesses a sense of swirling colours, due to its chaotic structure both vertically and horizontally.

The harmonic interplay between the guitars is frankly awesome - in that respect the band is almost unrivaled. The bass adds real depth to the melodies, and sounds somewhat jazzy at times (in a good way). Eucharist are clearly technically superb, and although the drum-production leaves a bit to be desired (the snare sounds a bit too 'slappy'), the drumming itself is excellent - giving the recording life while not being too 'showy'. I'd also like to praise the acoustic intro to "Greeting Immortality", which I find to be very beautiful and apt.

There's an almost constant sense of ambience in this album (sometimes rather Slayer-esque) thanks to the terrific drumming, and in particular it comes into use when an anti-climax is attempted. This works superbly for the most part, but occasionally feels slightly shallow and uninvolving, possibly due to a lack of subtlety, either in production or songwriting. Other flaws; in places I don't like the vocal delivery, or indeed the lyrics themselves. There is a slight immaturity present, inevitable as the band were amazingly only 15/16 when writing this, but that's why it only gets 80.

If narrative, complex, epic melodic death is something you enjoy, pick this one up. Quickly.

Melodic Death executed correctly - 82%

CrowTRobot, May 14th, 2004

This album is a compact representation of everything that is good in regards to melodic death metal. I find it difficult to proclaim that anything is truly groundbreaking or mesmerizing, however, the absence of filler and pretentiousness that may plague other bands of the genre makes for a solid listening experience.

First and foremost, the production is pretty awful for this style of music. Moderately paced songs played in a style reminiscent of early At The Gates require a sharper edge to the guitars and a nice balance between the drums and the vocals. Often the bass drum sounds like an annoying click and the vocals echo too much, detracting from their decidedly low presence in the mix. Ultimately, the tremolo picked riffs and the lead guitar pack enough of a punch to take front seat, and I eventually found myself unconcerned with the mentioned problems.

Each song is appropriately played out, with the exception of “Floating”, which could have easily been cut down to four or five minutes without sacrificing anything. The acoustic intro to “Greeting Immortality” is fitting, and the lead break in “March of Insurrection” around the three-minute mark does not detract from the pace of the song. Fortunately, Eucharist knew when to focus on riffs, and when to avoid throwing in a crappy solo or lead without much purpose.

Ultimately, I would recommend looking into this. It stands with “The Book of Truth” by Ceremonial Oath and “The Red in the Sky is Ours” by At The Gates as an album that provides a nice summary of the genre without leaning towards ridiculous repetition and stolen Iron Maiden riffs.